Charles Burney

The Present State of Music in France and Italy (2nd, corrected edition)

London: T. Becket and Co., 1773

Turin

and they would be still pretty comedies;
but, without music, the Italian would be
insupportable.

There were four characters in the bur-
letta of to-night; the two girls were just
not offensive. Of the men so much can-
not be said: none of them would have
pleased in London; and the Italians
themselves hold these performances in no
very high estimation: they talk the whole
time, and seldom attend to any thing but
one or two favourite airs, during the
whole piece*: the only two that were
applauded were encored; and I observed,
that the performer does not take it as such
a great favour to be applauded here as in
England; where, whenever a hand is
moved, all illusion is destroyed by a
bow or a curtsey from the performer,